A Livestock Model for Waste Heat Utilization Assessment

Robert N. Amundsen
John D. Keenan

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DOI: 10.2190/0QX8-B1F6-407E-QJ1E

Abstract

Thermal effluents from power plants can be used to accelerate the growth of farm animals. Livestock operations can be made more profitable by raising animals under controlled temperature conditions to obtain maximum food conversion efficiency. In order to evaluate whether the benefits of increased productivity outweigh the costs of temperature control, it is necessary to simulate the operation of livestock facilities. The livestock simulation model presented here has two parts. First, a materials balance approach is used to estimate the growth of animals at various temperatures. Second, a heat balance enables us to determine how much heat must be supplied to the buildings under anticipated weather conditions in order to maintain the desired temperature. In turn, this is used to compute the mass flow rate of heated water needed to provide the required heat.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.